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Nashville, Tennessee

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Nashville Scene - Pith in the Wind

The Nashville Scene News Blog

Better Fred than Read

Posted May 16, 2008 at 11:23:14 AM by Bruce Barry

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We at Pith join the many who welcome Fred Thompson to the blogosphere following his inaugural post yesterday at Townhall.com. Thompson’s opening salvo was mostly a vapid paean to an imagined conservative future, but it did include this curious bit of cause-effect reasoning:

Now isn’t the time for conservatives to be looking for a tailored message or a politically expedient route to victory if the end result is going to be the inevitable slide toward the liberalization and secularization of America, and the growth of government and loss of freedom that inevitably ensues.

Let me see if I have this right, F-man: Eight years of a staunchly anti-liberal, anti-secular administration (abetted by six years of an obsequious Congress) yields unrestrained growth of government, a ravaging of the separation of powers and a willful disregard for civil liberties, and you think liberalization and secularization are the paramount threats to freedom and government efficiency? So what are they putting in the water up there on Planet Delusion?

Category: Barry, Politics
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Confabulation on the Left

Posted May 13, 2008 at 10:47:43 AM by Bruce Barry

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Progressives statewide will gather Friday and Saturday for the Tennessee Alliance for Progress’s fifth annual Compass conference in Nashville. The Friday highlight is a celebration and awards ceremony featuring celebrity populist Jim Hightower. Saturday brings a morning keynote by former Mayor Bill Purcell, and a bunch o’ panels on social justice, the environment, workers' rights, globalization and more. A closing keynote late Saturday tackles “Hip-Hop as a Force for Community Empowerment.”

The full scoop here. I’ll be a panelist Saturday on the topic “Government as an Agent for the Common Good.” (This one’s for you, Gilbert M.)

Category: Barry, By the Way
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Politics, Public and Private

Posted May 12, 2008 at 09:20:22 AM by Bruce Barry

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A sidebar piece in Sunday’s Tennessean package on public schools raised a contentious issue that rears its head every so often: Does it matter whether elected officials and civic leaders who make so much noise about improving public schools send their own kids to public schools? The Tennessean story reminded us that both the mayor and the chair of the Metro Council’s education committee are privateers when it comes to educating their own children. Some say this is no big deal—your kids’ education is your own business. Others find it unsettling (that’s putting it gently) that those who would control the system’s fate think the schools are good enough for other people’s kids but not their own.

Does a different standard apply to those who serve on the school board? That question popped up last week on a Pith comment thread about District 9 school board candidate Alan Coverstone, whom I described as an involved public school parent (which is true). An anonymous commenter then offered up the factoid that one of Coverstone's kids will go private next year. Invited to comment, Coverstone, a teacher and administrator at Montgomery Bell Academy, tells Pith:

My older son is very excited about the prospect of attending USN next year, and I hope that every 5th grader in Nashville will be as excited about school next fall. I am and will remain an active public school parent at Hull-Jackson, and I am running to make sure that every family who struggles with what is best for their children will have options that their children can be excited about. I am committed and passionate about public education. I believe that we can bring all communities together to expand the choices parents have in public schools. My experiences in private and public education, as well as my personal experiences with the most personal of school choice decisions, qualify me to bring people together for the common good of all children and families in Nashville.

My own view is that everyone—elected officials included—has the right to educate their kids as they wish. But if you’re going to seek public office with direct responsibility for the school system—the largest piece of the county’s budget—you incur an obligation to say publicly and specifically what it is about the system that makes it unacceptable for your own kids. You might not be morally obligated to send your kid to public school, but you do have a moral obligation to say concretely why not. To say it's “what we think is best for our children; it's not a political decision," as Karl Dean tells The Tennessean, doesn’t cut it. The system is made worse when the city’s elites, people with money and influence to invest in the system's future, abandon it. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

Category: Barry, Education, Politics
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Dept. of Dubious Metaphors

Posted May 06, 2008 at 12:08:32 PM by Bruce Barry

Alan Coverstone, a candidate for Metro school board in District 9, is a promising contender for the seat being vacated by retiring board chair Marsha Warden. Coverstone is a thoughtful progressive whose campaign is off to an energetic start with lots of fundraising appeals and email blasts. The one sent today, however, did seem to incorporate an unfortunate turn of phrase in the subject line.

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Category: Barry, Education, Politics
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That Time of the Month

Posted May 06, 2008 at 09:45:54 AM by Bruce Barry

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Yes, once again the fate of the free world comes down to primary elections in medium-sized states. So how will it go down tonight in North Carolina and Indiana? Let's have those prognostications. Closest aggregate call (net combination of the margins) in the two races wins a one-year membership in the Court of Elite Opinion.

I’m going with Clinton 54.2-45.8 in IN and Obama 52.7-47.3 in NC.

In IN, the polls have sent a few mixed signals, but on closer inspection you have to believe that Zogby has it right and everyone else has it wrong to think Obama has much of a chance. Add in the likelihood given IN’s demographics that late deciders will tilt heavily toward Clinton, and it’s hard to see how Obama comes closer than seven or eight.

In NC, Clinton has unquestionably been closing the gap, but I look for Obama to push the steady 50 number he’s been polling up a few points to make it about a five-point win.

End of the night headline: Both claim victory, status quo ante, on to WV. What say you?

Category: Barry, Presidential Politics
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I'm Glad We Cleared That Up

Posted May 02, 2008 at 09:25:51 AM by Bruce Barry

Newspaper correction of the week, in today's Tennessean, page 2A.

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Category: Barry, Media
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City Paper 2.0

Posted May 01, 2008 at 10:25:51 AM by Bruce Barry

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As we near the end of week 1 of The City Paper’s new mix of print (two days a week) and online (the rest of the time) journalism, how’s it going so far for readers? The answer lies somewhere between “not well” and “hard to say” because the paper continues to inflict on its audience a truly awful website. Up until now this was merely unfortunate, but with the enterprise becoming more online than off, the website is no longer an embellishment; now it’s an embarrassment.

Let’s jump into the muck…


Continue reading "City Paper 2.0"...
Category: Barry, Media
Add or View Comments | 5 comments

Pennsylvania Prognosticatin’

Posted April 22, 2008 at 11:08:29 AM by Bruce Barry

Yikes, is it April 22 already? Seems like just yesterday we were dissecting Iowa caucus results. Where did the time go? And more importantly, how will it shake out tonight? Prediction time!

I’m going with Clinton 54-46—a big enough margin for her to frame it as a winning night, but small enough for nobody to really believe her. The polls have Obama pretty consistently in the low-mid 40s, and Clinton’s numbers generally 47-52ish. Assuming late breakers go more (but not completely) her way, I see her margin approaching but not quite reaching double figures.

The real prediction question, of course, is not just what happens tonight, but what happens tomorrow. How big a win tonight is a win? The problem for Clinton is that after Pennsylvania, there are no more Pennsylvanias, which is to say no more big delegate-rich states where she has the built-in demographic edge. The remaining contests—North Carolina and Indiana in two weeks, and then Kentucky, West Virginia, Oregon, South Dakota, Puerto Rico and let’s not forget Guam—are a mixed bag: Obama figures to take NC, OR, and SD; Clinton grabs WV, KY and PR; leaving IN as a tossup. After today, it’s hard to foresee a plausible significant aggregate effect on the spread of delegates or popular votes. Unless Clinton pulls out of nowhere a whopper of a win tonight in the 15-20 point range, giving superdelegates some seriously irritated bowels, what’s her path to the nomination? It may not be over tonight, but I'm thinking it's over on May 6.

Your PA call? Closest to the pin wins an all-expense-paid spa weekend with Mark Penn.

UPDATE: Just how remote is a Clinton nomination scenario by delegate count? At CNN's online delegate counter I gave Clinton big fat 20-point margins of victory not just in PA, but also in IN, WV, KY and PR. I gave Obama understated 8-point wins in NC and OR, and scored SD, MT and Guam dead even. The tally under this highly Hillarosy scenario: Clinton still trails Obama by more than 80 delegates.

UPDATE: The final PA margin came in at 54.7-45.3, a margin of just under nine and a half percent. I predicted 8 and commenter Tom predicted 11, so we’ll call it a tie; we can jointly visualize the prize…

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Category: Barry, Presidential Politics
Add or View Comments | 26 comments

Monday Morning Truth Squad

Posted April 21, 2008 at 09:30:24 AM by Bruce Barry

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And the nominees for most witless and uninformed assertion about the environment and climate change in a Sunday Tennessean op-ed this week are…

Bob Corker for his performance in “Return Cap-and-Trade Proceeds to People,” featuring this nugget: “No one can quantify how much of global warming is caused by natural cycles vs. man-made greenhouse emissions.”

Phil Valentine for his performance in “Earth Day Extremists were Wrong in the '70s, and Still Are” featuring this gem: “There is absolutely no evidence that carbon dioxide causes any kind of climate change.”

Let’s jump to some science, shall we?


Continue reading "Monday Morning Truth Squad"...
Category: Barry, Media, Politics
Add or View Comments | 12 comments

Caption Police

Posted April 14, 2008 at 08:29:39 AM by Bruce Barry

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It’s old news that shrinking audiences and dwindling budgets make it harder for local news operations to cover their communities with depth and nuance. The rapid comings and goings of newsroom talent inevitably leave us with reporters and producers who know far too little about the city they cover.

But c’mon, NewsChannel5, surely it’s not setting the bar too high to expect a major local news operation to know the name of the building where the city’s political business happens. Yes, Nashville does have a City Hall, but unless I’m mistaken, Metro Council meetings are still happening with no band and no cover.

Category: Barry, Media
Add or View Comments | 6 comments
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